Trucks enter the Plastic Age

The first thing I was struck by when getting on my little skateboard project board (see previous post) was this “clicky” feeling I was getting from the trucks when turning. I had a closer look and noticed it’s the kingpin clicking back and forth just a little when the bushing squishes. My machinist/jeweler background leaves me unimpressed by this much play in what are supposed to be pretty good trucks. The engineering of this part requires, it, though. Of course I started looking to see if this part had been updated, since this was the same construction I had seen used since the 80’s. Sure enough, I found a very promising new development:

Uptrucks: “one-piece elastrometric trucks”. In other words, the whole thing is the bushing, sort-of. They’re lighter, no speed wobble, no kingpin, better dampening, and they’ve built-in something else I was thinking about, ie a wheel-bite stop. If the truck is about to bend too far, it stops it before the wheel hits the deck. Not rocket science, but hey. Think I’ll get a pair if I can and play around with them. They’re not too expensive, either.

Seismic Trucks look interesting too, but they seem like a good new modification of an old idea, not an old idea turned on its head. When presented with a choice, I tend to always like the new weird idea better than the new old idea. Wonder what else is out there…

Well. There’s always this:

BMW’s $500 Street Carver, with trucks made from the BMW 5 Series running gear. Needless to say, they’re not made anymore. But it would be fascinating to get to play with one for a day…